Good, now for the hard part and this is where you really need patience.
The best explanation, apart from what my Consultant told me and he put me on the right track to find out about it all is this extract from a website
\"When you are given corticosteroids, either by tablets or by injection, your own pituitary is fooled into believing that the body is making more than enough adrenal steroids and so it switches your own adrenal glands off. They stay switched off for as long as you take corticosteroids continuously.
If this extends for many weeks or months the adrenal glands shrink(atrophy).
If you suddenly stop taking the corticosteroids, the pituitary gland senses the lack of steroids immediately.
However, if the adrenal glands have shrunk, no matter how hard the pituitary signals, they may not be able to resume normal hormone production straight away. Without any steroids, artificial or your own, you would be in danger of becoming seriously ill.
This is why people taking steroids should carry a steroid warning card. (A card is not necessary if the steroids are being given as a short course
such as for anti-sickness medication.) The card should be carried at all times so that, in an emergency, a doctor will know steroid treatment is being given and that it should continue.
It is also why, at the end of a prolonged course of treatment, steroids are often tailed off by gradually reducing the dose over days or weeks. This allows the adrenal glands to ‘wake up’ gradually so that when the tablets
are stopped they can resume their normal function.
To be safe, the card should be carried in your handbag or wallet for two years after your steroid course has finished. If you have an operation
during this time you must show the card to the anaesthetist. If you need to have any dental work, tell your dentist that you are having
steroid treatment.
Ragnar posted here and on two other sites and his story is on www.pmr-gca-northeast.org.uk
However here it is as I was told. You are now going into a higher percentage drop. Work out the math (good for your brain).
Once down to 5mg, stay there for 3 months, then take a 1mg drop, again three months, then 1mg drop and so on.
If a flare occurs go back up to the one previous, if that does not work, go back up by ones until you are comfortable and then try again.
Remember, PMR goes when it wants to and not when you want it too. Steroids do not cure, just give you a better quality of life.
Good Luck and let us all know how you get on.
I am sorry to take up so much space on this site, but information as to the how, why and wherefore's enable patients to understand better what is happening to them at each particular phase. Information is power.
mrs K